Pulse2 Technology and Social Media News » Intuit Inc.

Intuit Acquires Mobile Payments Company AisleBuyer

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 04:15:23 +0000

Intuit has acquired mobile payments company AisleBuyer for around $80-$100 million. AisleBuyer has raised $11.5 million in funding over several rounds. AisleBuyer started in 2009 and their service is to provide a checkout solution that improves the in-store experience by eliminating the need to have a line.

When a shopper scans a product barcode, they would be able to read the details and customer reviews about that product, then make a purchase on the spot in the store or by opting for home delivery.

Intuit Launches E-Commerce Platform For Facebook

Amit Chowdhry — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 22:15:39 +0000

Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU) has announced that they have launched an e-commerce platform today for companies to launch stores on Facebook. The Intuit SimpleStore service will automatically sync a merchant’s website and Facebook page by loading the inventory and enabling payments.

Business owners will be able to accept credit or debit card payments directly on Facebook. All of the transactions will be made through Intuit’s back-end. Intuit SimpleStore for Facebook will be available through Intuit’s websites.

The Intuit SimpleStore is facing stiff competition. For example Payvment, ShopIgniter, and BigCommerce are already doing the same thing as SimpleStore. To learn more about the Intuit e-commerce platform, visit http://www.intuit.com/ecommerce/create-your-online-store/.

Intuit Launches Application For Filing Taxes Through Your Mobile Device

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 22:04:48 +0000

Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU), the company best known for designing TurboTax and acquiring Mint.com has announced that they have created a mobile application called SnapTax. SnapTax lets you prepare and file tax returns. SnapTax will be very useful to filers of the simplified income tax 1040EZ form for people that make less than $100,000 per year, do not have dependents, and have meet other qualifications.

The SnapTax app asks you to take a photo of the W-2 form that your employer provides and it attempts to auto-fill the information in the 1040EZ form such as the name, social security information, and wages. Users then fill in the blanks and check for accuracy before hitting the “File Now” button. The form is then submitted to the state and the IRS. The Intuit application automatically calculates how much the filer can expect in refunds too.

SnapTax will be available for free from the Apple App Store and the Android Market. However submitting each form to the IRS costs $14.99.

Intuit Now Offering Free Mobile Credit Card Reader and Waiving Monthly Fee For Percentage Instead

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 18:11:03 +0000

Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU) launched a service in 2009 called GoPayment. GoPayment allows small and medium sized business owners accept credit cards on their mobile devices using a card reader that attaches to a compatible mobile device. Intuit is now offering the card reader and is waiving the monthly fee, but there is a catch.

Customers will be charged a rate of 2.7% for each card swiped and 3.7% for each card that has to be keyed in. A 15-cent fee is applied per transaction too. This deal is better for those who do not use credit card swiping that much.

For those who swipe credit cards a lot, the $12.95 monthly service is probably a better option. There are per-transaction charges applied along with the monthly charge, but its not as high. The business owner is charged 1.7% for each card swiped and 2.7% for each card keyed in with the monthly plan. And there is a 30-cents per transaction charge.

“By offering a free card reader and no monthly service fees, we want to give more small businesses a head start in the new year by enabling them to take mobile payments without any upfront investment,” stated Intuit general manager of Payment Solutions Chris Hylen. “And this is just the beginning. We’ll introduce new ways all year long to help more small businesses get paid quickly and inexpensively using their favorite mobile devices.”

GoPayment is compatible with the latest version of QuickBooks and there is security built in. Credit card information is not stored in the phone and all of the data is encrypted. The GoPayment reader works on the iPhone, BlackBerry, iPad, several Android devices, and the iPod Touch. Intuit’s GoPayment service has processed about $80 million in mobile payments so far.

Justice Department: 6 Tech Companies Agree Not To Poach Either

Amit Chowdhry — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 23:56:22 +0000

The Department of Justice has announced this past week that they have reached a settlement with 6 tech companies. Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ:ADBE), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU), and Pixar Animation Studios Inc. have all agreed to to enter an employee agreement. These 6 companies have agreed not to poach employees from each other.

The Department of Justice Antitrust Division filed a civil antitrust complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The agreements have been made between Apple and Google, Apple and Adobe, Adobe and Pixar and Google and Intel. Another agreement was made between Google and Intuit.

“The agreements challenged here restrained competition for affected employees without any procompetitive justification and distorted the competitive process,” stated Molly S. Boast, Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division in a press release. “The proposed settlement resolves the department’s antitrust concerns with regard to these no solicitation agreements.”

Intuit Acquires MedFusion For Roughly $91 Million

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 13 May 2010 21:52:07 +0000

Intuit has acquired health-care communications company Medfusion for about $91 million. Intuit plans to integrated Medfusion’s software into Quicken Health solutions. The deal is expected to close in Q4 of this year. Medfusion software is used by about 30,000 health care companies to help patients communicate with providers for appointment, bill, and prescription management. [TechCrunchIT]

Google Now Using Twitter To Sell Ads

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 07:06:53 +0000

Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is now using Twitter to sell advertisements. And Intuit is the first company to have signed on board. The five most recent tweets will be streamed on the AdSense network. Intuit is looking for TurboTax to grow on followers on Twitter.

Intuit is already advertising on Bebo, Facebook, MySpace, Hi5, and Alltop.

“It’s syndicating whatever the team that works on the TurboTax Twitter account [@turbotax] posts,” stated Seth Greenberg, Director of Marketing at Intuit. When clicking on a Twitter ad, a user is directed to the company’s Twitter account.

TurboTax spokeswoman Colleen Gatlin, Intuit social marketing manager Christine Morrison, and the rest of the Intuit public relations team runs the Intuit Twitter account.

[via AdAge]

Intuit Inc. Has Bought Homestead Technologies for $170 Million

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 04:55:42 +0000

â€œJoining Intuit will help us continue pursuing our dream of enabling every small business, entrepreneur and organization to effectively compete by leveraging the power of the Internet.â€
â€œWeâ€™re proud to be one of the highest-rated small business services on the Web today, but we believe we can do better. Becoming part of Intuit will enable us to focus our family of talented and engaged employees on solving important problems by providing products and services that delight our customers.â€
-Justin Kitch, founder and CEO of Homestead Technologies.

Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU) is a company that produces financial and tax software. Intuit is incorporated in Delaware and is HQed in Mountain View, Calif. Intuit has a $9.52 billion market cap and announced today that they would be acquiring Homestead Technologies for roughly $170 million in cash, outstanding options, and restricted stock units. Some of Intuit’s more known software includes TurboTax, Quicken, and QuickBooks.

â€œThis acquisition supports our growth strategy in small business by addressing an underserved need, and continues Intuitâ€™s move beyond financial management solutions into helping small businesses solve other important problems,â€ stated Brad Smith, Senior VP of Intuit‘s small business division. â€œHomestead helps us solve one of small businessesâ€™ highest priorities â€“ attracting customers â€“ by helping them succeed on the Web.â€

Homestead Technologies is a web hosting service based in Menlo Park, Calif. Homestead has evolved several times since its start in 1998. Homestead has a few web site building tools and has several other e-commerce services. Homestead has about 2,000 templates. I’d consider Homestead to be a little bit more of a professional version of Yahoo! GeoCities. Homestead sold Photosite, one of their web hosting photography services to United Online in March 2005.

Kitch has a blog at: http://ceounplugged.homestead.com/. One of Kitch’s more controversial blog posts was Maybe you should fire that customer?